Helmke received the award for his leadership in public policy and non-violence.

He served as mayor of Fort Wayne from 1988 to 2000, and is the immediate past president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

As for local proposals to arm teachers in response to mass shootings across the country, Helmke says it's a bad idea.

He says as mayor, he learned that police officers involved in shoot outs only hit their target 20% of the time, and can't imagine placing teachers in that position.

"If we're asking a teacher, who hasn't had that testing, hasn't had that training, hasn't gone through all that, to carry a loaded gun around in their classroom, I think we're endangering our students, we're endangering our teachers. I have no problem with having police officers assigned to schools that are considered at risk, to having school resource officers. But to arm teachers, I think, is asking too much of our teachers and I think is putting our students and other teachers and staff in danger," Helmke says.

Helmke says the conservative Supreme Court has already supported things like who can carry weapons and where, and he's confident Congress will enact some common-sense legislation, like mandatory background checks for everyone who buys a gun.